Mammoth top clover-clad Rock

So in a close game in which neither team was clearly better, the Colorado Mammoth simply had a couple more than the Toronto Rock on Friday.

The Mammoth scored a 14-11 win over the Rock before 8,596 at the Air Canada Centre on Friday in an entertaining game.

Despite the top two goaltenders in the league, Toronto’s Nick Rose and Colorado’s Dillon Ward facing each other, the offensive talent on the floor were able to enjoy a good night. Unfortunately for Toronto, its offence was not able to fully overcome a poor start.

The Mammoth, the least-frequent visitor to the Air Canada Centre in recent years, grabbed command early. Jacob Ruest and Callum Crawford scored after Brett Hickey opened the scoring. Then, after Kasey Beirnes tied the game, Stephen Keogh and Eli McLaughlin scored to give the visitors the 4-2 lead after one.

The teams found the net more often in the second with some nice efforts. After Crawford extended Colorado’s lead with his second, Reid Reinholdt scored after making a strong cut to the net and Stephan Leblanc cut into the Mammoth lead. After Chris Wardle fired a bullet past Rose off transition, Leblanc and Beirnes scored their second goal to even the game 6-6.

The Rock then got a bit unlucky hitting the iron. One of those bounces sent Colorado in transition and Ilija Gajic finished to restore the visitor’s lead. Keogh then added his second, but Leblanc completed a hat-trick for the period to send the hosts to the locker room down just 8-7.

The teams traded markers in the third. Gajic opened with an off-balance, over-the-shoulder shot beating Rose for his second. Towards the middle of the frame, Damon Edwards found the net for a transition marker. Ruest then scored his second on a rebound Rose was unable to cover up. Tom Schreiber finished the quarter with his first of the night to pull Toronto to within one again at 10-9 after three.

Keogh completed his hat trick in the opening minute of the final period to increase the Mammoth lead but Beirnes answered with his third of the night on the power play.

The hat-trick parade continued when Crawford completed his on a Mammoth power play, but Phil Caputo answered that one quickly for Toronto. Colorado pulled away with a transition goal by Jordan Gillies and an empty-netter by Joey Cupido to improve their record to 7-6 while the Rock fell to 6-5.

“We clawed away,” Beirnes said. “We thought we were going to get on a bit of a roll, but (Colorado) is a good team.”

“Their defence clamped down. They got a lot of offensive rebounds that were crucial down the stretch and really tired our team. It was a tough grind there tonight.”

The game was one of four on the NLL slate on Friday. The Georgia Swarm defeated the Calgary Roughnecks 17-8 while the New England Black Wolves beat the Rochester Knighthawks 12-11. The Buffalo Bandits faced the Vancouver Stealth late Friday.

The Rock have a busy weekend coming up, travelling to the Atlanta area next Friday to face the Swarm before returning for a Saturday night game against the Stealth.